Nobuta wo Produce Episode One overview & picspam
I made a silly promise to myself that I wouldn't start a new dorama until I'd properly reviewed Nobuta wo Produce, because I fell in love with it so hard. Needless to say, once Sapuri came along, obviously that promise flew out the window, but it's not the same as me bingeing on the completed doramas in my queue like 1 Litre of Tears and Orange Days which I'm really looking forward to starting.
So, here is an overview of episode 1 of Nobuta wo Produce, a startlingly good and heartfelt dorama about friendship. Originally, I'd planned to do one post for the whole dorama, but I got carried away, so the rest will have to wait until later.
I am often skeptical when I start a dorama, and this one was no exception. In fact, my "huh?" meter might have been running a little higher than usual when the first thing I see is this dorky looking kid with a palm-tree fountain of hair on top of his head brushing his teeth on a rooftop!
But then there was the whole sequence with willow tree, and what is not to love with a teenager who has that much affection for a tree? I started to love Shuji in that moment (it's my inner dryad coming out).
We follow Shuji's inner monologue as he goes to school and puts on a splendid performance as the popular and fun Kiritani Shuji-kun, the guy everyone likes and wants to hang out with. I find it curious though that he refers to Akira as his enemy the first time we are introduced to him.
A couple notes about this interesting first scene between Shuji and Akira. Akira puts his hands on Shuji or attempts to touch him no less than five times, while Shuji shakes him off in annoyance each time. Akira thinks of Shuji as his friend while Shuji wants nothing to do with him. And then there is Akira himself - my first thought when I saw him is "Is he drunk?" I realized that he wasn't drunk, but he's just...strange. Really strange. Akira is one of the strangest main characters I've ever seen! He's spacey and loony and just doesn't care what others think of him. Which makes him very cool in my book, even though he definitely takes a bit of getting used to!
It's also interesting that Shuji says in the next scene as he squats on the green grass by a tree: "I seriously hate him." Hate is an awfully strong emotion, and one wonders why Akira evokes such a strong feeling from Shuji...
When Shuji next goes to see his willow tree - his talisman, his one "comforting place," he is horrified and devastated to see that it has been uprooted and is entirely missing from its familiar place at the end of the waterfront. He completely loses it and begins shrieking his rage and frustration, and I have to say, I find it oddly endearing that a kid can be so emotionally involved with a tree. This when SHE appears - the girl who, along with Akira, would change Shuji's life forever. At first he thinks of her as the willow tree fairy, but instead she's just a very strange girl who had planned to hang herself from the tree. Shuji is unsurprisingly freaked out, and he gets away as fast as he can.
This is all just the first ten minutes!
The first episode introduces us to many of the wonderful recurring characters:
--->The student comedy duo called "Destiny" whose trademark is saying things at exactly the same time and sharing the local gossip in a humorous and entertaining fashion.
--->Goyokudo, the eccentric bookseller, who remains one of my favorite dorama characters. He is just weird and interesting. Dressed in traditional garb with crazy teased hair, eyeshadow and always turns up at the oddest moments. Sure he is often used as a plot device and spouts wisdom when Shuji needs it, but I adore him for his strangeness. Very high on the "WTF?" meter, but in the best possible way.
--->Bando, the main female bully
--->The goofy homeroom teacher who is constantly hitching his pants up.
--->Sebastian, the physical education teacher
--->The amazing unconventional vice-principal who climbs over rooftops as a shortcut, who somersaults to the ground and is also one of my favorite characters in this dorama. She's a woman who doesn't always play by the rules, and seems to have a sixth sense about her students, and has a particular fondness for our main trio.
--->Mariko, the good girl, who is beautiful and talented - she plays basketball and prepares amazing bento every day.
In the first episode, we are also introduced to Shuji's home life which consists of his father and brother and an absent mother. However, from the very first moments, we realize that while Shuji's mother may be absent, she is absolutely beloved by her husband and sons. Shuji comes home to find his father and brother in a state of panic because the airplane she was on had crashed and they think she might be dead. In witnessing all three of them completely freaking out and losing their minds over her fate, we realize that while they might be sad that she is not with them all the time, they seem to love her more for having her only in short bursts.
Shuji's home life presents an interesting dynamic - not only is his mother absent, traveling and working constantly abroad in vastly wide-flung areas of the world, but their father, a business executive, is the domestic one (naturally) who cooks and cleans and literally wears the apron. Shuji, of course, as the older brother, has a deep responsible streak and helps his father in all the household duties and also looks after his little brother devotedly, even whilst they squabble as brothers often do. And we learn that at home Shuji is not the polished, poised character that he presents to his classmates, but instead, he wears unstylish casual clothes, an absurd hairstyle, and that he does the family mending by hand! (I find it beyond adorable that he covers holes with cute animal patches). His personality in the privacy of his home with his father and brother is quite different from the Shuji he presents to the world.
This split personality is one of the main themes of the dorama, which is, at its heart, about Shuji. His fractured self is untenable as a constant state, and the dorama is a progression towards generating the Real Shuji, his true face and character, and is about him coming to terms with himself, becoming comfortable in his own skin and abandoning his need to constantly project a false self.
One interesting recurring element is the supernatural which shows up throughout the dorama. I happen to really like how it adds a mysticism to what otherwise might just be an ordinary teen drama. In the first episode this takes the form of a mystical monkey's hand which grants three wishes to its bearer. The vice-principal gives one of these hands to Shuji who wishes very earnestly for his beloved willow tree to find a new and better life in a new place. Later in the dorama, we see various other supernatural manifestations which move the plot along, but also prove both to our characters and to the viewers that there are greater forces at work than simply mere human existence.
So what else do we learn?
For starters, that Akira is really into Shuji - despite Shuji's attempt to repel Akira, the strange boy continues to glom onto him.
Akira can't find his bike lock keys, so he forces Shuji to give him a ride home.
I swear in the last pic that it looks like Akira is trying to lean in for a kiss! In any case, Akira has Shuji bring him to a tofu shop.
We discover that Akira boards in the rooms above the tofu shop with the tofu guy, but that he is really the son of a very wealthy businessman who runs a major company. His father told him to enjoy his youth, so that is why he lives a carefree life alone (with the tofu guy).
The tofu guy
Akira just can't seem to keep his hands off Shuji!
We also see that the girl who frightened Shuji at the site of the uprooted willow, joins his class as a new student, Nobuko. With a bent head and long dark hair that perpetually shrouds her face, she is obviously painfully shy and unable to socialize with her peers, which makes her a prime target for bullies like Bando. Both Shuji and Akira are clearly uncomfortable at the bad treatment that Nobuko receives almost immediately. But it takes a cruel act from Bando to provoke Shuji's compassion, when Bando drags Nobuko into the girls' bathroom and drenches her with water from a hose. Shuji scares the other girls away, and then he lends her a hand and takes both her and the also-soaked Akira (his attempt to intervene backfired miserably) to get changed and let their clothes dry.
Both Shuji and Akira suggest to Nobuko that she should try to change herself to avoid being bullied. But Nobuko has been suffering with her problems for a long time, stemming from her childhood when she reached out to the man she thought of as her father and she was shaken off.
Little Nobuko was sooo cute!
In any case, Nobuko's outlook on life is very poor (there's a reason she wanted to commit suicide earlier at the willow tree) - she has suffered from rejection and not fitting in for virtually her entire life and has been tormented all along wherever she went. She doesn't believe that there is a place for her in the world. She has no hope for a better future, so she doesn't see any point in trying to change to improve how she is treated.
Do you notice that Akira has a lock of Nobuko's hair and is both examining and sniffing it? Straaaaange.
Shuji and Akira hit on a plan to help her, so that Bando will leave her alone. But Nobuko is uncomfortable with their help because it involve deceit, so decides not to accept any more assistance from them, convinced that she can go on taking Bando's abuse.
Shuji is able to find a spark of hope for Nobuko, though, when he discovers the the willow tree, its roots wrapped for travel, on a barge. He finds Nobuko, makes her get on behind him on his bicycle, and they follow the barge as far as they can to see what lies in store for the beautiful willow. For both of them, the willow's survival to find a new world and a new life is symbolic that there is a better future ahead, even if they have no roots and foundation at the moment.
...and thus, the Nobuta wo Produce project is born, in which Shuji and Akira make a secret pact with Nobuko (who acquires the nickname of Nobuta) to help her become popular. And yet, despite the hopefulness of their pact and the new bond that joins the three students, there is an ominous tone at the end indicative of a malicious force that their pact may not be able to withstand.
I hope you can tell how much I loved this! :)
So, here is an overview of episode 1 of Nobuta wo Produce, a startlingly good and heartfelt dorama about friendship. Originally, I'd planned to do one post for the whole dorama, but I got carried away, so the rest will have to wait until later.
I am often skeptical when I start a dorama, and this one was no exception. In fact, my "huh?" meter might have been running a little higher than usual when the first thing I see is this dorky looking kid with a palm-tree fountain of hair on top of his head brushing his teeth on a rooftop!
But then there was the whole sequence with willow tree, and what is not to love with a teenager who has that much affection for a tree? I started to love Shuji in that moment (it's my inner dryad coming out).
We follow Shuji's inner monologue as he goes to school and puts on a splendid performance as the popular and fun Kiritani Shuji-kun, the guy everyone likes and wants to hang out with. I find it curious though that he refers to Akira as his enemy the first time we are introduced to him.
A couple notes about this interesting first scene between Shuji and Akira. Akira puts his hands on Shuji or attempts to touch him no less than five times, while Shuji shakes him off in annoyance each time. Akira thinks of Shuji as his friend while Shuji wants nothing to do with him. And then there is Akira himself - my first thought when I saw him is "Is he drunk?" I realized that he wasn't drunk, but he's just...strange. Really strange. Akira is one of the strangest main characters I've ever seen! He's spacey and loony and just doesn't care what others think of him. Which makes him very cool in my book, even though he definitely takes a bit of getting used to!
It's also interesting that Shuji says in the next scene as he squats on the green grass by a tree: "I seriously hate him." Hate is an awfully strong emotion, and one wonders why Akira evokes such a strong feeling from Shuji...
When Shuji next goes to see his willow tree - his talisman, his one "comforting place," he is horrified and devastated to see that it has been uprooted and is entirely missing from its familiar place at the end of the waterfront. He completely loses it and begins shrieking his rage and frustration, and I have to say, I find it oddly endearing that a kid can be so emotionally involved with a tree. This when SHE appears - the girl who, along with Akira, would change Shuji's life forever. At first he thinks of her as the willow tree fairy, but instead she's just a very strange girl who had planned to hang herself from the tree. Shuji is unsurprisingly freaked out, and he gets away as fast as he can.
This is all just the first ten minutes!
The first episode introduces us to many of the wonderful recurring characters:
--->The student comedy duo called "Destiny" whose trademark is saying things at exactly the same time and sharing the local gossip in a humorous and entertaining fashion.
--->Goyokudo, the eccentric bookseller, who remains one of my favorite dorama characters. He is just weird and interesting. Dressed in traditional garb with crazy teased hair, eyeshadow and always turns up at the oddest moments. Sure he is often used as a plot device and spouts wisdom when Shuji needs it, but I adore him for his strangeness. Very high on the "WTF?" meter, but in the best possible way.
--->Bando, the main female bully
--->The goofy homeroom teacher who is constantly hitching his pants up.
--->Sebastian, the physical education teacher
--->The amazing unconventional vice-principal who climbs over rooftops as a shortcut, who somersaults to the ground and is also one of my favorite characters in this dorama. She's a woman who doesn't always play by the rules, and seems to have a sixth sense about her students, and has a particular fondness for our main trio.
--->Mariko, the good girl, who is beautiful and talented - she plays basketball and prepares amazing bento every day.
In the first episode, we are also introduced to Shuji's home life which consists of his father and brother and an absent mother. However, from the very first moments, we realize that while Shuji's mother may be absent, she is absolutely beloved by her husband and sons. Shuji comes home to find his father and brother in a state of panic because the airplane she was on had crashed and they think she might be dead. In witnessing all three of them completely freaking out and losing their minds over her fate, we realize that while they might be sad that she is not with them all the time, they seem to love her more for having her only in short bursts.
Shuji's home life presents an interesting dynamic - not only is his mother absent, traveling and working constantly abroad in vastly wide-flung areas of the world, but their father, a business executive, is the domestic one (naturally) who cooks and cleans and literally wears the apron. Shuji, of course, as the older brother, has a deep responsible streak and helps his father in all the household duties and also looks after his little brother devotedly, even whilst they squabble as brothers often do. And we learn that at home Shuji is not the polished, poised character that he presents to his classmates, but instead, he wears unstylish casual clothes, an absurd hairstyle, and that he does the family mending by hand! (I find it beyond adorable that he covers holes with cute animal patches). His personality in the privacy of his home with his father and brother is quite different from the Shuji he presents to the world.
This split personality is one of the main themes of the dorama, which is, at its heart, about Shuji. His fractured self is untenable as a constant state, and the dorama is a progression towards generating the Real Shuji, his true face and character, and is about him coming to terms with himself, becoming comfortable in his own skin and abandoning his need to constantly project a false self.
One interesting recurring element is the supernatural which shows up throughout the dorama. I happen to really like how it adds a mysticism to what otherwise might just be an ordinary teen drama. In the first episode this takes the form of a mystical monkey's hand which grants three wishes to its bearer. The vice-principal gives one of these hands to Shuji who wishes very earnestly for his beloved willow tree to find a new and better life in a new place. Later in the dorama, we see various other supernatural manifestations which move the plot along, but also prove both to our characters and to the viewers that there are greater forces at work than simply mere human existence.
So what else do we learn?
For starters, that Akira is really into Shuji - despite Shuji's attempt to repel Akira, the strange boy continues to glom onto him.
Akira can't find his bike lock keys, so he forces Shuji to give him a ride home.
I swear in the last pic that it looks like Akira is trying to lean in for a kiss! In any case, Akira has Shuji bring him to a tofu shop.
We discover that Akira boards in the rooms above the tofu shop with the tofu guy, but that he is really the son of a very wealthy businessman who runs a major company. His father told him to enjoy his youth, so that is why he lives a carefree life alone (with the tofu guy).
The tofu guy
Akira just can't seem to keep his hands off Shuji!
We also see that the girl who frightened Shuji at the site of the uprooted willow, joins his class as a new student, Nobuko. With a bent head and long dark hair that perpetually shrouds her face, she is obviously painfully shy and unable to socialize with her peers, which makes her a prime target for bullies like Bando. Both Shuji and Akira are clearly uncomfortable at the bad treatment that Nobuko receives almost immediately. But it takes a cruel act from Bando to provoke Shuji's compassion, when Bando drags Nobuko into the girls' bathroom and drenches her with water from a hose. Shuji scares the other girls away, and then he lends her a hand and takes both her and the also-soaked Akira (his attempt to intervene backfired miserably) to get changed and let their clothes dry.
Both Shuji and Akira suggest to Nobuko that she should try to change herself to avoid being bullied. But Nobuko has been suffering with her problems for a long time, stemming from her childhood when she reached out to the man she thought of as her father and she was shaken off.
Little Nobuko was sooo cute!
In any case, Nobuko's outlook on life is very poor (there's a reason she wanted to commit suicide earlier at the willow tree) - she has suffered from rejection and not fitting in for virtually her entire life and has been tormented all along wherever she went. She doesn't believe that there is a place for her in the world. She has no hope for a better future, so she doesn't see any point in trying to change to improve how she is treated.
Do you notice that Akira has a lock of Nobuko's hair and is both examining and sniffing it? Straaaaange.
Shuji and Akira hit on a plan to help her, so that Bando will leave her alone. But Nobuko is uncomfortable with their help because it involve deceit, so decides not to accept any more assistance from them, convinced that she can go on taking Bando's abuse.
Shuji is able to find a spark of hope for Nobuko, though, when he discovers the the willow tree, its roots wrapped for travel, on a barge. He finds Nobuko, makes her get on behind him on his bicycle, and they follow the barge as far as they can to see what lies in store for the beautiful willow. For both of them, the willow's survival to find a new world and a new life is symbolic that there is a better future ahead, even if they have no roots and foundation at the moment.
...and thus, the Nobuta wo Produce project is born, in which Shuji and Akira make a secret pact with Nobuko (who acquires the nickname of Nobuta) to help her become popular. And yet, despite the hopefulness of their pact and the new bond that joins the three students, there is an ominous tone at the end indicative of a malicious force that their pact may not be able to withstand.
I hope you can tell how much I loved this! :)